A voiced velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . If it is necessary to avoid the implication that the approximant is spread as its vocalic equivalent is, it may instead be transcribed or (or , which is now dated). This is the symbol of the voiced velar fricative with a lowering diacritic.
This consonant is absent from English, but may be approximated by making but with the tongue body lowered or but with the lips apart. The voiced velar approximant can in many cases be considered the semivocalic counterpart of the close back unrounded vowel . and with the non-syllabic diacritic are sometimes used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound, though others make a distinction between them.
In some languages, such as Spanish, a voiced velar approximant is an allophone of – see below.
For a voiced post-palatal approximant—sometimes also described as a voiced pre-velar approximant—which is more fronted in the place of articulation than a prototypical velar approximant, see .
Phonetic ambiguity and transcription usage
Some languages have a voiced velar approximant that is unspecified for rounding, and therefore cannot be considered the semivocalic equivalent of either or its rounded counterpart . Examples of such languages are Catalan, Galician and Spanish, in which the spirant approximant (not semivowel) unspecified for rounding appears as an allophone of .
Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the voiced velar approximant consonant as follows:
There is a parallel problem with transcribing voiced palatal approximants.
In broad transcription,See e.g. . the lowering diacritic may be omitted, so that the symbol is rendered as with the corresponding fricative.
Features Features of a voiced velar approximant:
The most common type of this approximant is glide or semivowel. The term glide emphasizes the characteristic of movement (or 'glide') of from the vowel position to a following vowel position. The term semivowel emphasizes that, although the sound is vocalic in nature, it is not 'syllabic' (it does not form the nucleus of a syllable). For a description of the spirant approximant variant used e.g. in Spanish, see .
Occurrence The following list includes languages with variable pronunciations. Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Aragonese 'oak tree' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of . Astur-Leonese Asturian Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of . Extremaduran Leonese Mirandese Basque 'wing' Allophone of Catalan 'water' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of . See Catalan phonology Cherokee ᏩᏥ 'watch' Found only in the Western dialect. Its equivalent in other dialects is [w]. Also represented by Ꮺ, Ꮻ, Ꮼ, Ꮽ, and Ꮾ Danish Older speakers 'tallow' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Still used by some older speakers in high register, much more commonly than a fricative . Depending on the environment, it corresponds to or in young speakers of contemporary Standard Danish. See Danish phonology Dutch Western East Flemish Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Corresponds to a fricative in other dialects. French Belgian 'macaw' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Intervocalic, word-internal allophone of for some speakers. See French phonology Galician 'organ' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of . See Galician phonology Greek Cypriot 'shop' Allophone of . Guarani 'near, close to' Contrasts with Ñandewa Paulista-Paranaense'I cut'Contrasts with . Hiw wr̄og 'through' Contrasts with and with .Ibibio ufokọ Intervocalic allophone of ; may be a uvular tap instead. Icelandic 'Skagabyggð' Approximant consonant "[It is] doubtful whether the voiced fricatives are to be classified as such, rather than as approximants.". "The weakness of the articulation of the voiced sounds makes them at times more like approximants, and they are very easily deleted intervocalically in natural speech, making pronunciations like [taːr̥] for [...] quite common." unspecified for rounding. See Icelandic phonology Irish 'nine' Occurs only between broad consonants and front vowels. See Irish phonology Judeo-Spanishgato'cat' Korean / 'doctor' Occurs only before . See Korean phonology Mwotlap haghag 'sit' Contrasts with . Occitan Gascon 'said' (3rd pers. sg.) Shipibo Unspecified for rounding; varies between an approximant and a fricative. Allophone of in certain high-frequency morphemes. Spanish Most dialects 'to pay' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding. Ranges from close fricative to approximant.Phonetic studies such as have found that Spanish voiced stops may surface as spirants with various degrees of constriction. These allophones are not limited to regular fricative articulations, but range from articulations that involve a near complete oral closure to articulations involving a degree of aperture quite close to vocalization Allophone of . See Spanish phonologyStandard European'blog'Also described as a fricative. Allophone of before a pause. See Spanish phonology Swedish Central Standard 'themed day' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; allophone of in casual speech. See Swedish phonology Tagalog igriega 'y (letter)' Approximant consonant unspecified for rounding; intervocalic allophone of . See Tagalog phonology Tiwi 'we (inclusive)' Vietnamese Southern gặp 'to meet, to see' Typical realization of in other dialects. Variant is in complementary distribution before open vowels.
Nasal
A nasalized voiced velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is typically or .
Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Guaraní Paraguayan 'in Guarani' Allophone of due to nasal vowel–consonant harmony, though typically retains some degree of labialization; may therefore be closer to .Japanese / 'third rank' Syllable-final moraic nasal realization; broadly described as dorso-velar, though exact placement of articulation varies. See Japanese phonologyNizaaŋun'boy/girl'Non-syllable coda realization of . See Nizaa phonology.Ikwerre 'to bask in the sun' Allophone of before nasal vowels, due to nasal vowel-consonant harmony.
Bunched or molar r
Some languages have a velar approximant that is produced with the body of the tongue bunched up at the velum and simultaneous pharyngealization. This gives rise to a type of retroflex resonance that is nearly indistinguishable from . described this sound precisely as an "apico-postalveolarized, advanced velar approximant". The extensions to the IPA describes the sound as a "bunched r" or "molar r" and recommends the use of the centralized diacritic, , to distinguish the bunched realization from the apical articulation . Typically, the diacritic is omitted, so that the sound is transcribed simply with or as if it were a coronal consonant.
In Dutch, this type of r is called 'Gooi r'. It is named after het Gooi, a region of the Netherlands where Hilversum (the main centre for television and radio broadcasting) is located.
Features Features of a voiced velar bunched approximant:
The body of the tongue is bunched up at the velum, rather than just approaching it as it is the case with the prototypical velar approximant.
Occurrence Language Word IPA Meaning Notes Dutch Randstad varieties 'but' Common allophone of in the syllable coda, where it contrasts with . The bunching and pharyngealization may be lost in connected speech, resulting in a semivowel such as or . See Dutch phonology Standard Northern English American 'red' Possible realization of ; auditorily indistinguishable from apical . See Pronunciation of English /r/ Received Pronunciation 'curious'
See also Index of phonetics articles
Notes
References
External links